Volume 3: High School Arc - Mirror Game
I shivered all over, and the walls of that factory building had already begun to rot, turning crimson like blood.
“What do you see?”
Xu Han followed my gaze and looked toward the factory, but… in her eyes, I didn’t see anything similar.
In other words, the changes in the factory—only I could see them!?
“No time to explain, run!!”
I ran forward quickly, and based on my experience, I instinctively avoided that small puddle we had encountered on the way here.
At that moment, the ground began to be eroded by red, and even the moonlight of the whole world started to change color!
At the same time, the two people behind me, including the bespectacled Xu Han, didn’t follow in my footsteps, but tried to step directly over the small puddle.
Even though I was sprinting, I had always been observing behind me.
I had seen every bump and hollow in the road earlier very clearly and had memorized them all.
Now, I could practically walk backward without tripping, so I didn’t need to look down.
Just as Xu Han’s foot stepped onto the puddle, suddenly, a charred black arm stretched out from the puddle that had turned from rainwater into blood, grabbing her foot.
In that instant, when I thought Xu Han was going to be dragged into that blood pit—into the pitch-black Inner World—suddenly, a strong chill burst from her body.
Her eyes turned blood-red in an instant, blue veins bulged on her forehead, and she stared at the foot that had been grabbed… blood tears sprayed from her eyes.
Not flowed—sprayed!
They really sprayed out.
Blood instantly covered her large glasses frame.
Then, a claw that could no longer be considered human stretched out from the glasses frame!
Hell if I knew what I was looking at!!
Blood sprayed from her eyes, hit the glasses, and then a claw came out of the glasses!?
Next, that claw suddenly touched the charred, withered arm that had reached out of the blood pit.
A powerful grudge, full of malice, exploded instantly.
The arm in the blood pit disappeared immediately.
Xu Han closed her eyes tightly, let out a scream, and her body went limp as if she were going to fall forward.
Jiang Yulong didn’t hesitate to hoist Xu Han onto his shoulder, reached into the pouch hanging at his waist, and in the next moment, black hair wrapped around the two of them.
Without stopping for a second, Jiang Yulong ran after me.
He didn’t care at all that the hair had burrowed into his skin from his arm, gradually turning from black to red as it absorbed his blood.
He just followed my footsteps and ran out.
The moment we stepped off that narrow path, the erosion of the crimson Interdimensional Space suddenly halted.
As if… some unspeakable force had completely blocked the invasion from entering this area.
Immediately after me, Jiang Yulong jumped out from the grass with Xu Han in his arms.
This guy still had some manliness in him.
Before landing, he held the unconscious Xu Han tightly in his arms and took the impact with his own body as he fell hard to the ground!
‘Plop!’
My heel touched down.
I stood at the edge of the path, beside the main road, watching the crimson Interdimensional Space struggling in vain to corrode the blocking dead leaves and twigs.
In the end… it could only retreat, defeated.
Seeing this, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew…”
At least I wasn’t dragged in directly—who knows what would have happened if I was.
Turning my head back, I looked at Jiang Yulong and Xu Han, who had just sat up from the grass, their bodies covered in dead grass and mud.
I couldn’t help but ask instinctively.
“Why didn’t you use a substitute doll?”
I believed that everyone carried such an item.
After all, it wasn’t expensive—only fifteen points.
It could buy you ten seconds of survival.
Even if this game’s duration was cut in half, that’s still five seconds, right?
“Before the game officially starts, APP items don’t work…”
Jiang Yulong didn’t speak.
But Xu Han, eyes still tightly shut, replied to me in a calm and steady voice.
“Your eyes…”
Looking at the blood covering her face from her eyes, she looked terrifying.
I couldn’t help but be surprised… she could still stay so calm?
“It’s fine… just temporary blindness, it’ll be fine in a while.”
Xu Han replied like that.
Beside her, Jiang Yulong frowned slightly, then looked at his left hand.
I followed his gaze.
His left hand looked somewhat pale, probably due to blood loss.
The long hair that had been wrapped around him earlier had retracted completely the moment he jumped out and closed his waist pouch.
But on the pouch, I could still see specks of red.
“Surprised?”
“Whether it's tool-type or parasitic-type, there’s always a price to pay.”
“I’m more curious why you… when you just used a parasitic-type anomaly, didn’t pay any price?”
Jiang Yulong didn’t even look at me.
He took out a wet tissue from his pocket, removed Xu Han’s glasses, and while wiping the blood off her face, asked me something I didn’t even understand.
A price?
Using this kind of thing requires a price?
Tool-type?
Parasitic-type?
Were these two types of anomalous grudge-bearers that human players could rely on?
Tool-type… was easy to understand.
Probably something like the pouch Jiang Yulong used.
Judging from his now-pale face, the strand of hair must have been sucking his blood!
And from Xu Han’s condition… the amount of blood from her eyes wasn’t normal either.
If it were a normal person, with that much blood coming from the head, they would’ve already passed out!
But Xu Han seemed fine.
“Looks like your case is a bit special…”
“But I’m not interested in digging deeper.”
“Since you don’t know, and since you returned the grudge to me just now, I’ll tell you this much.”
“No matter if it’s tool-type or parasitic-type, they all come with a price.”
“You saw it just now—my price is simple. Blood.”
“The longer I use it, the more blood I lose.”
“Hanh-Han…”
At this moment, Jiang Yulong had completely lost his playful demeanor.
His face was full of seriousness and concern.
“Yulong, let me say it…”
Xu Han, eyes still closed, now had her bloodied face wiped clean.
With Jiang Yulong’s help, she slowly stood up.
“Girl, we don’t know what your anomaly is exactly…”
“But whatever it is, it must require a price.”
“Tool-type usually takes something material—it’s relatively easy to meet the conditions.”
“But for parasitic-types like you and me…”
Xu Han slowly opened her eyes as she spoke.
And in those pale, clouded pupils was a malicious intent that was absolutely inhuman!
“Parasitic-type anomalies require us to pay a permanent price… Mine is relatively powerful, so the price is higher—it wants my eyesight. One day, when it fully takes my eyes, I’ll only have death awaiting me.”
At that moment, even though Xu Han was speaking human language, I was one hundred percent certain!!
The madness in those eyes that longed to tear everything apart—was definitely not something a human could possess!!!
A chill crawled across my body.
As if she sensed my wariness, Xu Han slowly closed her eyes.
“But don’t worry. At least for now, I haven’t gone blind. It won’t come out.”
Xu Han kept her eyes shut and smiled at me.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yulong looked at me with an expression full of something strange.
The three of us… remained in that tense silence for nearly three minutes.
Until, not far off, we heard a car honking.
It turned out the driver uncle had found us.
After that… the two of them got in the car.
Given the state the two of them were in now, riding the motorcycle really was too risky.
One blind, one anemic—could easily turn into two lives lost in one crash.
So, facing these two weakened players, I relaxed my guard a little and helped them into the car.
According to the location they mentioned, I showed the driver uncle the navigation.
The driver uncle was quite cheerful.
“Hey! That place? The barbecue shop you mentioned belongs to an old friend of mine! Don’t worry, I’ll get you there safely.”
“Thanks, uncle. Hey, do you often work night shifts?”
“Huh… what about it?”
Uncle looked at me in confusion, while I just shook my head.
“Nothing much. Uncle, give me your number. If I need a ride at night again, I can call you. Don’t worry, I pay well!”
“Ha! Do I look like someone who’s desperate for a few bucks?”
The uncle did a stylish head shake, giving me a rather charming side profile.
Then he turned back seriously and asked:
“How much?”
This uncle… actually had a sense of humor?
I smiled.
“At least double the regular fare. That good enough?”
“Generous, girl, really generous. Deal!”
“My name’s Liu Yunyan. Uncle, no need to keep calling me ‘girl’ this, ‘girl’ that.”
“Alright then! And you can stop calling me ‘uncle’ too—it makes me sound old. My name’s Zhao Wengang, just call me Brother Zhao!”
“Deal. I’ll be counting on you then, Brother Zhao.”
While talking, we exchanged phone numbers.
I sneaked a glance—he saved my contact as ‘Sister Liu.’
So I saved him as Brother Zhao.
“Sister Liu, those two… they’re your friends? Why didn’t they come with you earlier?”
Brother Zhao was quite chatty.
He talked while driving, occasionally glancing at the rearview mirror.
“Ah… we planned to come together, but I got delayed with something and missed them, so I took a cab alone.”
When it came to lying, I could do it without blushing or skipping a beat.
After all, after so many years of struggling in society, if I couldn’t manage this much, then all those years would’ve been wasted.